Dive Brief:
- The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chair Erica Williams was appointed to a second term.
- Williams’ next term will begin on Oct. 25 of this year and run through Oct. 24, 2029, according to a press release.
- “I look forward to continuing to work with Chairperson Williams to further the PCAOB’s long-overdue plan to modernize standards and improve audit quality to promote investor protection,” SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter said in the release.
Dive Insight:
Williams has championed several new audit standards and stepped up PCAOB enforcement since taking the board’s top post in January 2022. Those efforts align with the goals of Gary Gensler who, after becoming SEC chair in 2021, shook up the PCAOB’s five-member board and called on it to strengthen oversight of the accounting firms that audit publicly listed companies.
"I am honored to have Chair Gensler and the Commission's confidence and grateful for the opportunity to continue working alongside my fellow Board Members and the talented and dedicated PCAOB staff to protect investors," Williams said in the Tuesday release.
In April, the PCAOB imposed a record $25 million fine on KPMG Netherlands in connection with alleged widespread exam cheating in the firm’s internal training program.
Last year, the board fined a Colombian affiliate of Deloitte $900,000 for alleged violations of quality control standards in connection with a 2016 audit. The PCAOB imposed over $20 million in civil penalties in 2023 overall, nearly double the prior year’s level.
“[I]n light of the PCAOB’s aggressive enforcement and standard setting activities, the future outlook for registered public accounting firms and their personnel appears increasingly complex, costly, and risky,” Patrick Bryan and Melanie Walker, partners at DLA Piper, wrote in a January article.
Prior to joining the PCAOB, Williams was a litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She previously spent more than a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as deputy chief of staff to three former SEC chairs and assistant chief litigation counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement trial unit.
After leaving the SEC, Williams served as special assistant and associate counsel to former President Barack Obama with a focus on financial and economic policy issues.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 established the PCAOB to oversee the audits of public companies and registered broker-dealers. Under the act, the board is subject to SEC oversight, including the selection of its members.
